Why categorize Edwin Stanton as an Unsuccessful SCOTUS nominee when he wasn't? [closed]

Question

Edwin McMasters Stanton served as Lincoln's Secretary of War among many other positions. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by Grant and confirmed by the Senate. He died 4 days before taking the oath and being seated. Someone has categorized him with Unsuccessful Supreme Court Nominees. He was not an unsuccessful nominee. This categorization should be removed, yes?

Comments

I added the categorization tag to this question. The profile was created (or perhaps renamed -- the history does not indicate whether there was a previous category) recently by a Categorization Project member.

The member who added the category (a couple of days ago) is not on the trusted list for the Edwin Stanton profile; you might want to send him a PM to alert him to this question.

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I have no idea why that's even a category. Seems under the realm of US Project, so if you want to keep it, perhaps explain the use of it in the category page? I think Mr. Stanton was probably a special case in that he was confirmed but died shortly after, never taking the oath, so why not just remove the category since  you're the PM?

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All depends on how you define "unsuccessful" in this context. The category description says:

"Nominees to the Supreme Court of the United States have been unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. In some cases, the Senate has voted down the nominee, or even refused to hold a hearing on the nomination. In other cases, the nominee declined the nomination or the nomination was withdrawn."

Given that last sentence, "unsuccessful" doesn't just mean the nomination was not approved by the Senate. One could argue that his nomination was unsuccessful at resulting in his being seated because death intervened. (Just sayin'.)

If y'all decide to keep the category, you could add to the definition "or the candidate died before taking their seat."

Or not.

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I would like to second Natalie's comments. This is not a category I would think of creating or using.

We can't see who created the original category since it has since been renamed, but all the profiles have been added to the category by the same contributor since May 18 of this year.

Perhaps the best option would be for T. and/or the US project to contact this member privately to broach the subject.

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The member was contacted but has not (yet) responded. Unsuccessful has a specific and negative connotation no matter how it gets defined so as PM of cousin Edwin I am removing the categorization. For anyone curious, my connection to Edwin is via my maternal line and not the surname.

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We humans are the most interesting meaning-making machines...

Cambridge dictionary: not achieving the hoped for result

Edited to add: sorry... can't help myself. My professional work includes a lot of helping people articulate the meaning of the words they use... in a field dominated by fuzzy language. 

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T, would you like to add [[Category: United States Supreme Court Nominees]] to the profile? No negative implications in this name.

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That's certainly more appropriate, Natalie. Didn't know that existed. Thank you. Now I am curious if he is the only one confirmed but not seated due to death.

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To answer my own question immediately above, www.supremecourt.gov implies that Edwin M Stanton may be the only person confirmed who died before being sworn in. See footnotes this page.

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The subject content is now in Category:United States Supreme Court Nominees, as discussed in this thread.

Answer 1

It appears that the category was created as a carbon copy of the Wikipedia category of the same name. This was an action by an individual member, not a United States Project initiative, nor something that was proposed to project leadership.

That Wikipedia category was discussed at some length as a candidate for deletion at Categories for discussion: Withdrawn nominees to the US Supreme Court. The discussion led to a decision to retain the category, basically because the fact of being nominated to the Supreme Court was a major and important element of the person's biography.

Consistent with the thoughts expressed in that Wikipedia discussion, I can see how descendants and relatives of these nominees would see it as a significant distinction for their relative and might also want to see WikiTree profiles of other people who were nominated to the court but did not make it to the point of being sworn in. The word Unsuccessful bothers me, though.

Maybe we could call this U.S. Supreme Court Nominees Who Did Not Serve

Comments

That name is sort of "clunky." It could be just [[Category:United States Supreme Court Nominees]] like the Oscars and other awards have. The category page could have the "who to add"  explanation.

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Your idea works for me, Natalie.

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Ok, I'll rename it now. Thanks, Ellen.

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I'm so sorry to cause a kerfuffle and certainly didn't mean to offend. I did create the original category because I found out a relative of mine was nominated to the Supreme Court but never served. I thought it was a really interesting component of his biography so added the category based off of how the category was named in Wikipedia. There aren't a large number of people who have be nominated, so figured I would add the others as well. Didn’t mean to be offensive using the word “unsuccessful” but was just basing it off of Wikipedia. In retrospect, I should have thought more about the negative connotation. Thanks much to those who changed the name of the category to “United States Supreme Court Nominees” as that is a much better name. Sorry again if I overstepped.

Answer 2

I believe I renamed it during my DBE Categories suggestions work (probably had lower case words previously.) I didn't question the category or submit it for deletion, even though it seems like an unnecessary category to me. (Or it could have been a red-linked category; can't recall.)

But what's next? Unsuccessful Presidential Candidates? Please, no. What purpose does that serve for WikiTree?

Comments

The category was created as "Unsuccessful nominees to the Supreme Court of the US" on or before May 18 (as can be found from the change logs of profiles in the category), so it's definitely been renamed for incorrect capitalization.